


Eyes Forward, Child

by pungoeshere



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-25
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-01-16 23:21:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1365478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pungoeshere/pseuds/pungoeshere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keep your target in front of you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eyes Forward, Child

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fergalicious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fergalicious/gifts).



A roar stills the chaos of the Battlefield.

It’s triumphant, angry and serves as a signal of the Lord’s victory over the Page. Jake lies still, yards away from the monster that had flung him away like a ragdoll. He can see Lord English from his place on the ground, perfectly aware of how dangerous it is to lie still in front of an advancing predator, but completely unwilling to move. He’s so tired. The ground rumbles ever so slightly with every heavy step the beast makes toward Jake, his unfocused eyes registering the hulking shape coming ever closer. Further back, there are others. Blurry shapes, all struggling to come to his aid. But every single one of them is just as tired as he is. Somewhere, in a much more distressed part of his mind, Jake is aware they need him to get back up. It’s so hard to believe he’s needed. His dearest friends and these new additions to his small group of compatriots probably have faith that he’ll stand again, but they’re wrong. Their hope is misplaced.

                A second roar. There's still that ever present rage, but it's tinged with something akin to surprise this time. Odd. Jake manages to pull his eyes up to see a streak of green, much brighter than the blotch stomping toward Jake, cut his line of vision and slam into the blotch. They hit the ground and Jake's eyes widen. That was amazing. Who was that?

                The answer comes quickly enough when he hears the sound of static and the smell of burning air accompany the sensation of someone placing their hands on his shoulders to make him sit up. Everything is still ringing, but he’s got the sense to try and focus on her.

                “Grandma?”

                A pause.

                “That monster really hit you pretty hard,” says a familiar voice from a familiar face, but much younger.

“But I know you can-“

He closes his eyes.

* * *

 

A bang breaks the relative stillness of the island. Jake’s eyes shoot open just in time to see the black metal of the gun he’d fired come up to meet his face. Grandma had warned him to be ready for the recoil, to take the proper firing stance, but he’d chosen to try and impress her. He was a big boy and an adventurer. Shooting with one arm wouldn’t be a problem for him at all.

With a sigh, Grandma English kneels next to him, one of her hands coming up to slide the white curtain of her hair back behind an ear.

“Jake, what did I say?” she says, admonishing his foolhardy attempt at bravado. He had been so, so wrong and not only made an idiot of himself in front of the strongest person he knew, but he was probably going to cry now. His face stings, it’s hot out, he’d been bitten by at least two bugs and now he was in the dirt, trying to keep himself from tearing up because he messed up so badly.

Grandma tuts at him, pityingly. She places a hand on his cheek and the other on his shoulder, encouraging him to sit up. He sniffles pathetically, a thing trail of snot making its way from his nose over his lips as his eyes glisten with the most miserable expression of disappointment in one’s self imaginable.

“D-don’t sh-shoot with one arm. A-and don’t,” Jake says, pausing to reach up and wipe at his mouth and nose with one arm. “A-and d-don’t close my eyes when I shoot.”

“Good, but you forgot a few other things,” Grandma says, helping Jake to his feet. Gently, she takes the pistol from his hands and does a quick check of it as she spoke, narrating her own actions “Make sure the barrel is clear. Check if the safety is off. Hold the gun with both hands. Make sure your legs are planted. Aim with both eyes open. Keep your back straight. Don’t lock your joints. Exhale, then fire.”

Another bang echoes off the trees as the bullet from Grandma’s shot hits the target she’d set up dead center. Like it did every other time. In that moment, Jake is overcome with awe as he catches a glimpse of who his elderly caretaker was in her prime; a woman of determination, courage and unfaltering will. She must have been both terrifying and incredible to see in action. It takes a moment before he registers that she’s speaking to him again. When he looks up and away from the target he’d been transfixed by, Jake sees his Grandma laughing and shaking her head. She always did that when she caught him daydreaming.

As she kneels down next to him, the elder woman places a kiss into Jake’s hair before ruffling it, making a mess of his already unruly hair. That gets a laugh out of him. His face still stings, but the blow to his pride is already healed.

“Now, try again,” she says, placing the pistol’s grip into the young boy’s hands. “And remember the most important step. Believe in yourself. That makes all the difference. Believe in yourself the way I believe in you and there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.”

“Really? Do you think I can learn to shoot two guns at once?” Jake has to ask. A child’s mind will always leap to the most impossible task when given freedom. But Grandma doesn’t slap his dream from the sky. It would be easy and probably easier for him in the long run if she didn’t let him indulge his flights of fancy so often. But where would the fun in that be?

“Maybe after you've learned to fire one, first. It will take time and work and it won’t come easy. But as long as you keep your eyes on the target,” she says, reassuring him as she maneuvers herself behind Jake. Grandma lifts his hands to eye level, letting him center the sights. She lets go and it’s all him holding the gun steady now. Her hands have relocated to his shoulders with a comforting pat. “You’ll be fine. With or without me.”

The way Grandma English says this last part gives Jake pause. His young mind is still incapable of processing the sorrow laced in her encouraging words, but there’s something innately off that he can sense. When Jake turns slightly to look at her with a worried expression unbefitting a child’s face, Grandma meets his gaze and places a hand on the rectangular bruise that was forming near his eye.

“That monster really hit you pretty hard,” Grandma says, nodding at the gun in his hands. It wasn’t that big, but in his tiny grip, it looked gargantuan. She coaxes Jake to face forward with a gesture and returns her hands to his shoulders.

“But I know you can do this.”

Jake nods. He follows every step.

He aims.

* * *

 

A beam of the purest white crashes into the center mass of Lord English’s body. It sends him flying several yards away from Jade and Jake, whom he’d closed in on quickly after Jade had caught him by surprise. Looking at the fallen behemoth with confusing, Jade follows the trajectory of the shot back to its source: A single, solid white pistol that appeared to be made of white flames sitting in Jake’s hand. She smiles at him, but any feeling of pride is shoved aside when another roar cause the Battlefield to quake. Jade looks up to see Lord English attempting to stand and flailing in anger at having been hit twice already by creatures who wouldn’t die obediently. Jake is already moving to his feet, his body radiating the same strange white aura that seemed to make up his new firearm. In his other hand, an exact duplicate of the weapon waited to be used.

“What do you say we show this lummox what for?” he says, his second wind apparently restoring his confidence.

“Sure thing, _Grandpa_ ,” she says, a cheeky smile on her face as she walks to his side, green fire enveloping her arms and concentrating at her finger tips. Jake offers her a sheepish grin at that, shrugging slightly.

“In my defense, that creature delivers quite the haymaker. I think a few things may have been rattled around. Mistaking you for someone you technically were shouldn't be that surprising.”

“You don’t need to explain it to me. Just hit him back harder!” Jade says, the gloom of defeat being replaced by a vigor she was sure wasn’t there before.

“Right you are!” Jake cries out, lifting his guns in unison with Jade’s arms.

A roar shakes the Battlefield.

Two people take aim.

They fire.

**Author's Note:**

> i sincerely hope everyone enjoys this! special thanks to lantadyme and the rest of the jadefest team for 1) making this possible and 2) giving me an extension to get this out there.


End file.
